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THE UNIVERSITY OF THE 
STATE OF NEW YORK AND 
ITS FRENCH INSPIRATION 



By Charles Beatty Alexander, LL.D., Litt.D., a Reg-ent 
of the University of the State of New York.^ An 
address delivered at the Luncheon Given in Honor of 
Monsieur Andre' Tardieu, French High Commissioner 
to the United States, by the French Institute in the 
United States on the 6th of April, J9I8, at the 
Rit2-CarIton Hotel, New York 



THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 
1919 



tie Vkite House 
NOV 12 1919 






THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW 
YORK AND ITS FRENCH INSPIRATION 



Mr Chairman, Mr President, Your Excellencies, Ladies and 
Gentlemen : I am instructed to present to you the following resolu- 
tion adopted on the 28th of March last by the Regents of the Uni- 
versity of the State of New York, and I am much honored in 
conveying this message to you : 

" It having come to the knowledge of the Board of Regents that 
the French Institute in the United States, lately chartered by the 
University, is giving a luncheon on the 6th of April in the City of 
New York in honor of Monsieur Andre Tardieu, French High Com- 
missioner to the United States, and that an invitation has been kindly 
extended to the Regents to be present, it was voted that the Regents 
desire to express their gratification that Monsieur Tardieu is to be 
received and entertained by one of the institutions of the University, 
and that they authorize Regent Alexander, who has announced that 
he intends to be present, and who has been asked to speak on that 
occasion by the Institute, to convey to Monsieur Tardieu a welcome 
on behalf of the University, and an expression to the Institute of the 
satisfaction of the Regents." 

The University desires also to w^elcome Sir Henry Babbington 
Smith, K.C.B., C.S.I., Minister Plenipotentiary, Assistant Commis- 
sioner for Great Britain, representing Lord Reading, who comes to 
us from a nation bound to us by an ancestral language, reverence for 
the common law, and love of liberty. 

The University rejoices to see the representatives of Italy present. 
America has looked upon all of the magnificent fighting, which seems 
to have been done by supermen, on the heights of the Alps for the 
last three years. 

As you all know, the Regents are the governing body of the Uni- 
versity of the State of New York. This university, unique in its 
organization and methods of work, is not an educational super- 
structure; it is not a teaching institution. It is the embodiment of 
the educational agencies of the commonwealth, the incorporated 
intelligence and the assimilating bond of its elemnets, and a state 
department of education, with certain large legislative powers and 
legal functions in regard to state educational policies and laws. Its 

R 39r-Ag 19-2500 



province is the entire range of public education. It embraces the 
membership and the work of the public schools, academies, colleges, 
professional and technical schools, universities, libraries and 
museums. It provides opportunity for cooperation and understand- 
ing among its members while diminishing or adjudicating occasions 
of friction and conflict ; adapts educational policy to varying needs ; 
and indicates and provides a continuity of knowledge. It accumu- 
lates books, and manuscripts, supervises the public archives, collects 
valuable natural objects, and may prosecute scientific work directly 
on behalf of the State ; grants all educational charters in the State, 
confers honorary degrees, establishes examinations, and bestows 
certificates, diplomas and degrees ; admits to certain professions 
and occupations, and regulates the certification of public account- 
ants and nurses. It apportions state educational funds. It fosters 
all forms of cultural work ; recognizes local associations of an edu- 
cational character, distributes printed matter, encourages civic im- 
provement work — in fact, does everything it can to stimulate the 
intellectual life of the people. Its annual convocation for the 
consideration of important educational matters enjoys a notable 
reputation. This occasion convenes not only the Regents and 
ofBcers of its institutions, but also many eminent educators from 
outside the State who are cordially welcomed and share fully in 
all discussions. Its proceedings, issued annually, are of much 
value to educational libraries. 

The State does not exercise a complete monopoly of education. 
Private institutions exist, subject to no public authority, which do 
good work. But it is the policy of the State to bring all chartered 
educational institutions into the University and, while allowing them 
virtually complete self-government in internal administration, to 
hold them accountable for the proper performance of their duties. 
These chartered institutions are subject to the inspection of the 
Regents, who may require annual reports of them. 

The power of granting educational charters has always been 
conservatively exercised, the Regents insisting that the body to be 
incorporated shall be composed of people of the highest character, 
that the object shall be a highly educational one, as distinguished 
from commercial, and that the institution shall be of a kind which 
will guarantee a wise management and a stable existence. The 
conditions they believe to be amply fulfilled in the case of the 
French Institute. 

It is a matter of interest to the Regents to learn among other 
things that the president of this institute is the great-grandson of 



John Lawrance, who was one of the early Regents of the Univer- 
sity. Incidentally, as judge advocate of the continental army, he 
officiated in the court that tried Major Andre. While thus refer- 
ring to the president, let me say that while I know that there are 
many reasons for his deep and persistent interest in France, yet 
I can not, as a vice president of the Society of the Cincinnati, refrain 
from hoping and believing that he has been greatly inspired in his 
interest in French art and letters in this country by his membership 
in that society, with its magnificent record of the mutual service 
performed by its original members and that gallant body of French 
officers v/ho came to the rescue of this country in the War of the 
Revolution. 

It is also a matter of great interest, when we are united with our 
traditional ally in a war for the freedom of the world, that the 
French Institute should be one of those chartered by the Regents, 
thus forming a part of the University; for the parent institution, 
the University of the State of New York, apparently derived much 
of its inspiration from French sources and from early lovers of 
France. 

The historic University of the State of New York was founded 
immediately after the achievement of American independence. In 
January 1784, two months after the British left New York, 
Governor George Clinton embodied in his message to the Legis- 
lature an earnest recommendation for the encouragement of edu- 
cation. The matter was taken up by the Legislature and James 
Duane brought in a bill entitled, "An act for establishing a univer- 
sity within this State." Nothing definite is known of the origin of 
this idea of a university nor of the provisions of the bill. The 
friends and governors of King's College, within and without the 
Legislature, immediately made a determined and successful effort 
to revive that institution and make it the head of a university 
system. Thus there was created by act, May i, 1784, a corporation 
designated as " The Regents of the University of the State of New 
York " in which were vested all the former rights, privileges and 
immunities of the government of King's College — thereafter 
Columbia College and now Columbia University — together with 
the power to found and endow schools and colleges throughout the 
State. While it was in a certain sense a state department of edu- 
cation, it also included all the chartered, teaching institutions of 
academic and collegiate rank ; it was in form a private corporation. 
Aristocratic ideas of education had prevailed in the establishment 
of King's College and the leaders of 1784 were too much in 



sympathy with the spirit of conservatism to have much faith in the 
radical innovations such as were proposed by educational reformers 
in the France of their time. Yet the law of May i, 1784, was a 
compromise, for there was a strong democratic element in favor 
of a state system not centered around the old college, but identified 
with state life and controlled by the people. These opponents, who 
represented the popular party of the American Revolution and who 
later had French sympathies, adopted the new philosophy of free- 
dom and self-government in church and state, and favored positive 
and practical education — the kind which would best fit men for 
service in the state. 

In November 1784 the control of Columbia was strengthened by 
an amendment to the law. Able men worked for Columbia, such as 
James Duane, the first mayor of the city of New York, Alexander 
Hamilton and John Jay. They preferred centralization in the estab- 
lished corporation rather than a new and problematical university 
controlled by the communities of the State. The laudable ambition 
of Columbia men seemed to them to accord with expediency. 

The Regents, during the first three years of their being, confined 
their activities to those of trustees of Columbia College. The gen- 
eral educational interests of the State suffered and there was dis- 
satisfaction. The popular opposition found a leader in the Legis- 
lature in Ezra L'Hommedieu of Suffolk county, who was also a 
member of the Board of Regents. In 1786 he fathered a copyright 
law which had a rider permitting the establishment of an academy. 
This, the first academy incorporated by the Regents, marked the 
successful beginning of a wide movement for such institutions, and 
a growing menace to the then predominance of Columbia. 

The split came in the Legislature of 1787, over the granting of a 
charter to an academy which had applied to the Legislature rather 
than to the University. L'Hommedieu seized the opportunity to 
prepare a bill to reorganize the University upon a broader basis. 
He became the champion of the interests of the State as a whole — 
of a widely spread education that should serve local needs while 
unified in a state system. The Regents saw the need of reform. 
In February 1787 Hamilton proposed a bill which had as its prin- 
cipal object the improvement of the condition of Columbia. Hamil- 
ton's committee appears to have ignored the academies and schools 
until L'Hommedieu's activity began. Hamilton favored a more 
effectual working of the existing acts, L'Hommedieu, a new and 
broader foundation. It seemed that neither side could prevail and 
both appeared willing to compromise. An arbitration committee 



7 

was appointed by the Regents, opportune concessions were made by 
Columbia, the two parties united, and a law, satisfactory on the 
whole, was framed, and was passed by the Legislature. The Regents 
were reorganized. Their general powers were continued, but the 
property and the direct management of the affairs of Columbia 
College were restored to a local board of trustees. The essential 
features of this system remained the same for more than a hundred 
years. In 1895, the Regents became a constitutional body under the 
name of " The University of the State of New York." 

The founders of the University may have supposed that the 
Regents would have the oversight of all the school interests of the 
State, but the Regents did not press any claims for their own con- 
trol of the common schools so that for a time two state educational 
systems, one in control of academic and higher education and the 
other in control of common schools, resulted. The Regents' con- 
trol would have produced early a symmetrical and coordinated 
system of education, from the lowest to the highest grades, with 
unified administration and supervision, but it was only after nearly 
a century of contention that the two systems were united under the 
Board of Regents in 1904. 

Thus it was that in New York City this University had its origin ; 
and thus also that early dissension displaced Columbia as the head 
of the system and resulted in the establishment of a University 
which became the mother, not of students, but of corporations — of 
universities, colleges, academies, schools, libraries, museums, scien- 
tific associations, and other educational agencies. 

The following is a statement of the work of the University : 

Schools Attendance Net Property 

Common elementary schools i 454 514 $202 922 359 

Special elementary schools 940 3 734 106 

Common high schools 171 263 41 817 557 

Special high schools 4 152 2 578 652 

Academies 53 461 32 559 445 

Normal schools 8 125 3 261 681 

Teachers training classes and schools 4 422 

Universities, colleges, professional schools and 

other higher institutions 56 116 173041375 

Private schools of all grades, exclusive of 

academies as enumerated above, as shown 

by reports and best available information 

(estimated) 275000 

Indian schools 842 33 Soo 

Evening schools 173 878 

Evening vocational schools 2^ 688 

Trades and vocational schools 17 861 2 750 168 

2 248 262 $462 698 843 



8 

The total number of University scholarship holders in the State 
is 3000. 

The total number of Cornell scholarship holders in the State is 600. 

Three hundred and fifty-six (356) holders of University scholar- 
ships are also holders of the state scholarship in Cornell University, 

In three of the colleges of the State — The College of the City 
of New York, Hunter College, and the State College for Teachers 
— the tuition is free. To this extent all the students in these col- 
leges may be said to be enjoying scholarships. 

Nearly 600 libraries and museums are registered with the Uni- 
versity, enjoying the benefits of educational extension work and 
the resources and services of the great State Library and the mag- 
nificent State Museum at Albany. The University embraces also 
many institutions and associations devoted to science, literature, art, 
history and other subjects. 

The University has often been called imperial in character, an 
analogy being drawn between its system and that of Great Britain 
and her colonies. There is a persistent tradition that it was con- 
ceived and founded by Alexander Hamilton, and the great reputa- 
tion of that statesman for plans of a profound and imperial nature 
has led many to lend a willing ear to the tradition. Hamilton's 
share in the definitive reorganization, so far as university and col- 
lege education is concerned, was undoubtedly large; but the pro- 
visions for academies and colleges throughout the State — the care 
of local educational interests — are chiefly due to Ezra L'Homme- 
dieu. Neither appears to have been active in the passage of the 
original law of 1784. Hamilton was not then a member of the 
Legislature. In the reorganized system of 1787, both were active 
and were advocates of rival bills. A compromise resulted and it 
can not be truthfully said that either, or even both together were 
the sole authors of the educational system, which had assumed 
many of its permanent features in the earlier legislation. The 
University has a manifold authorship. 

It is to France that we owe the conception and the best features 
of our educational system. It was idealistic France, the France of 
the encyclopedists and the Revolution, that furnished the inspiration 
of the new educational ideas. France was awakening to new life 
during the latter half of the eighteenth century and was casting off 
the shackles of medievalism which fettered the world. Educational 
revolution was but a part of the same awakening which found 
expression in the growth of science and in political upheaval. The 
educational revolution in France quite significantly preceded the 



political. This liberal movement in France, based on naturalism, 
harked back to the ideals of ancient Greece and Rome. Greek ideals 
of the physical, mental and political virtues were revived and the 
idea of the imperial organization of old Rome. Rousseau and his 
followers opposed arbitrary authority and favored the seculariza- 
tion of schools. In education, freedom of thought, state control and 
a centralized form of administration were advocated. The reaction 
against clericalism enthroned the state. In the secularization of 
learning and the revival of state education, France achieved a great 
triumph. The medieval University of Paris was the parent and 
model of the chief universities of Great Britain and Germany. Its 
early tendency toward centralization grew. Though educational 
matters in France were in a state of ferment and revolution for 
some fifty years — until Napoleon established his university in 1808 
— the new current of thought flowed from France to the world, 
and prevented ecclesiastical and aristocratic dominance in the 
estabhshment of the University of the State of New York. 

The political leaders of the American Revolution were close 
students of the new French philosophy. The New York constitu- 
tion of 1777 shows the influence of French thought in its conception 
of the state. The similarity of the French' plans for national edu- 
cation and those of the new American states leaves no doubt that 
the French schemes had been carefully studied. Nor is there lack- 
ing evidence of particular and concrete influences. The two great 
Americans most conspicuously in sympathy with French philosophy, 
Jefferson and Franklin, both planned systems of education according 
to the French ideas. Franklin wrote from France to friends in 
New York about educational matters. John Jay returned from 
Paris to New York in 1784, expressing French educational ideas. 
French sympathy and alliance in the American Revolution brought 
more than material support. After Yorktown, Rochambeau and his 
army waited in this country the final decision of peace. Among the 
many addresses which he then received from legislatures, institu- 
tions of learning, etc., was one from the ancient College of William 
and Mary, at Williamsburg, Virginia, where he had established his 
headquarters : "Among the many substantial advantages which this 
country has already derived and which must ever continue to flow 
from its connection with France, we are persuaded that the improve- 
ment of useful knowledge will not be the least. A number of dis- 
tinguished characters in your army afford us the happiest presage 
that science as well as liberty will acquire vigor from the fostering 
hand of your nation." 



10 

Following the Revolutionary War, and growing out of our French 
alliance, a remarkable attempt was made to establish in the United 
States a grand system of higher education. The projector was a 
veteran of the war, the Chevalier Quesnay de Beaurepaire, grandson 
of the famous French philosopher and economist, Doctor Quesnay, 
who was court physician to Louis XV. He planned to found in 
Richmond, the new capital of Virginia, an academy of the arts and 
sciences. This institution was to be national and international, 
with branch academies in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, 
and affiliations with the royal societies of London, Paris and Brus- 
sels, and other learned bodies of Europe. The best talent of the 
Old and New^ World was to be enlisted in its service. The academy 
was to teach the youth of America, to form scientific commissions, 
to investigate our natural resources and products, to communicate 
to Europe a knowledge of America, etc. ; it was to issue its proceed- 
ings yearly, from its own press in Paris, and to distribute such 
publications to the learned societies of Europe. Quesnay conducted 
a diligent propaganda in Virginia and other states and secured the 
approval and support of many distinguished men. The foundation 
of the academy was laid in Richmond, June 24, 1786. Having 
organized his academy, Quesnay returned to Paris and set to work 
actively in the interest of his grand project for the intellectual union 
of France and America. He gained the favor of men of the most 
cultured taste and of the highest rank in France. His list of 
" foreign associates " comprises the most distinguished French 
names in art, science, literature and politics : Beaumarchais, secre- 
tary to the king; Malesherbes, minister of state; the Comte de La 
Luzerne, minister and secretary of state ; the Marquis de La 
Luzerne, royal ambassador to Great Britain ; the Marquis de 
La Fayette, then a marshal of the armies of the king; the Abbe 
de Bevi, historiographer of France; Condorcet, secretary of the 
Royal Academy of Science ; Dacier, secretary of the Royal Academy 
of Art ; Houdon, the sculptor ; the Marquis de Montalembert ; the 
Due de La Rochefoucauld; Vernet; and many others. Supported 
largely by French capital, strengthened by French prestige, by lit- 
erary, scientific and artistic associations with Paris, the intellectual 
capital of the world, the Academy of the United States of America 
at Richmond might have become a center of a higher education. 
But circumstances were against it. France, on the eve of revolution, 
was in no condition to foster an educational system in the United 
States. Jefiferson, the first conspicuous advocate in this country of 



II 

centralization in university education, was living in France from 
1784 to 1789 and knew and favored Quesnay's project. His ideas, 
stimulated by such suggestions, found later expression in the estab- 
lishment of the University of Virginia, which is his immortal 
monument. 

The comprehensive plan of Quesnay may have had a decided 
influence upon the system adopted by New York. He visited here 
about the time of the establishment of 1784 and secured for his 
project the approval and support of many distinguished and influen- 
tial men, among them being Governor Clinton, Mayor Duane, and 
the Livingstons — the very men who were then considering and 
debating the problem of a general system of education for New 
York. 

It has been seen that, upon the reorganization of the University in 
1787, the man who was the most conspicuous advocate of the 
broader, and now dominant, educational ideas, was not Hamilton, 
but L'Hommedieu. The latter was the descendant of Benjamin 
L'Hommedieu, a Huguenot, who came to New York from Rochelle, 
France, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and settled in 
Southold, Long Island. Ezra L'Hommedieu was graduated from 
Yale in 1754 and completed his education by travel and study in 
France. A portrait of him, in the possession of the Regents, shows 
a fine classic head and vivacious and intelligent expression. It can 
readily be seen how the French blood and training of L'Hommedieu 
may have influenced the organization of the University. 

I am, however, much tempted to feel that the real father of the 
University was William Livingston, the scholar, the vigorous writer, 
the cultured and able lawyer, and the brilliant and versatile New 
Yorker, who afterwards became governor of New Jersey. He was 
an early exponent of revolutionary ideas in New York and a 
determined opponent of the founding of King's College under the 
domination of the Church influence. He wrote with the fervor of 
the French reformers of that period about the divinity of " reason " 
and the bane of ecclesiasticism. His arguments contain the germ 
of the whole modern educational reform. He was an ardent student 
of Montesquieu, and his words, like those of the French philosopher, 
revive the Hellenistic spirit as the source of new educational inspira- 
tion — an education free from all traditional bondage, organized 
upon state foundations, and which seeks a knowledge positive and 
practical rather than scholastic. His plan for the proposed college 
contained several provisions which, ignored in its establishment. 



12 

were triumphant later in the organization of the University. The 
chief practical features of his plan, some of which strongly resemble 
French schemes, won a triumph in the final establishment of the 
University. There can be little doubt that the founders of the Uni- 
versity were familiar with his plans. His distinguished family con- 
nections assured an added influence. Henry Brockholst Livingston, 
one of the first Regents, was his son ; John Jay married his eldest 
daughter; Chancellor Robert R. Livingston was a cousin. 

Further evidence of the comprehensive and imperial character of 
French ideas of education and of the influence which such ideas 
must have exerted in the United States is found in the plans of 
Dupont de Nemours, the distinguished French economist and philos- 
opher, and the ancestor of our eminent family of that name. A 
friend of Turgot, he was of that group of French economists v/ho 
tried, by economic measures, to avert the French Revolution. A 
member of the Assemblee des Notables and an influential writer 
upon social and philosophical subjects, he was one of the best 
examples of educated men under the old regime. Before the French 
Revolution he had made the acquaintance of Jefiferson in Paris. 
He came to this country, visited Jefferson in Philadelphia, and 
interested himself in education in the United States. At the behest 
of Jefferson, he wrote a treatise on " National Education in the 
United States " which set forth a plan for a general system of 
popular education for the whole country. His university idea 
included not only the higher but also secondary and primary educa- 
tion ; in fact his plan embraced the whole educational field and was 
described as the University of North America. Intentionally he 
broke away from the historic constitution of universities; but he 
considered that America and European countries required a national 
system of education, beginning with the common schools and cul- 
minating in special, professional and technical institutions. He pro- 
posed that the city of Washington should be made the educational 
as well as the political capital. Here his brilliant imagination pic- 
tured and planned a magnificent palace of education, dedicated to 
the enduring progress and enlightenment of the American people. 
It is interesting to note that one of his family is today one of those 
much interested in this French Institute. I allude to General T. 
Coleman du Pont. 

The idea developed by Dupont de Nemours was not peculiar to 
him. It originated in the schools of Paris, the oldest university in 
Europe. The thought of state education was abroad in the land. 



13 

George Washington's scheme for a national university, to be estab- 
Hshed at the capital, was generally known. He had announced it to 
Congress and had provided for it in his will. But such schemes 
were too grand for the new republic with its feeble national life. 

It may be that the magnificent palace dedicated to education 
which has been erected by the State of New York in Albany is a 
realization of the dreams and visions of Quesnay and Dupont de 
Nemours, but I venture to suggest that those dreams and visions 
will be more completely fulfilled when the magnificent new building 
of the French Institute to house its collections and as a place for 
the association of its members has been completed in the City of 
New York. 

In 1808, the Emperor Napoleon founded a University of France, 
comprising a system of secondary schools, and university centers, 
each with its local government, in the chief towns. This university 
absorbed and controlled the entire educational system of France. 
It was substantially the New York plan, carried out by a ruler with 
supreme power and resources and under different national circum- 
stances. That there were many opportunities for an interchange 
of ideas and the exercise of mutual influences is indicated in many 
ways. Quesnay's plan provided a " committee of correspondence," 
formed at Paris and charged with the international work of the 
Academy. A councillor of this committee, Fourcroy, was the 
adviser of Napoleon in the establishment of his university. And 
Condorcet, whose plan for a national system of education con- 
tains most of the modern reforms, was one of the " foreign asso- 
ciates," as were La Fayette and Jefferson — then minister at Paris. 
Thus there were men who had an early and intimate knowledge of 
educational affairs in America. It is sometimes suggested that 
Napoleon obtained and made good use of the charter of the Uni- 
versity of the State of New York. Unfortunately proof is lacking. 
What a source of gratification it would be if some day one of our 
students delving in the archives of France were to discover the 
material which would prove the truth of that which is now only 
a supposition. Certain it is, however, that if France gave New 
York the ideal of a symmetrical state system of secular education. 
New York in turn, in its comprehensive university corporation, was 
the precursor of France in giving practical form to such a system. 

During a century and more of national growth France has modi- 
fied her university by according greater liberty to institutions; and 
by providing educational facilities not found in the original system, 
such as elementary, technical and normal schools, and schools for 



14 

girls. This plan approximates the New York idea of a university 
as including all education. Meanwhile, the Empire State has con- 
stantly tended to centralization and has unified her dual system. 
The intervention of the State, exercised through the Regents and 
their special agent, the President of the University of the State of 
New York, who is also Commissioner of Education, has its counter- 
part in France in the ministry of public instruction. In both the 
state regulates the general rules of discipline and the general order 
of work ; yet liberty is respected — freedom of thought and methods. 
These two great educational systems developed by democratic influ- 
ence are today the most complete, the most logical and the most 
closely related in the world. 

France and America have a glorious inheritance of common 
memories and historic associations. France assured our independ- 
ence and embodied the ideal in the Statue of Liberty in the great 
gateway of the western world; she ceded us Louisiana that we 
might be great; she was the first nation of the world to accord 
recognition to our national emblem; she gave us the plan of our 
national capital. Though very different in many ways, France and 
America have the same ideals of freedom and justice; the same 
striving for better conditions and a greater share of happiness for 
the many. And this presage of a closer union is being fulfilled. 
There has been a constant exchange of thoughts and views; and, in 
late years, of books and men. And the French Institute is con- 
summating this normal, peaceful and enduring alliance by its great 
work of instructing the people of this State and of the United States 
in the treasures of learning and art which France has placed at the 
disposal of civilization. 

This meeting today at the exalted behest of the French Institute 
enables us to recall especially the debt of gratitude which we owe to 
France for the imperial organization which now dominates education 
in this State, and which has done so much to advance its interests ; 
and it is only a very small return for what the State owes France 
that it should grant great and important powers to the French Insti- 
tute to carry on its grand work. The Regents believe that a great 
future awaits this relatively new institution and they desire to 
express their profound gratitude that an eminent citizen of France 
should have left his engrossing and patriotic duties and come into 
the portals of the University, for his presence within this great 
spiritual and practical structure expresses to those laboring in this 
noble cause his appreciation of the work which is being done. 



15 

We like to let our minds run back and to think how gratifying it 
would have been to Livingston and Hamilton and L'Hommedieu 
and Duane to see that the institution which they with such deep 
consideration and solicitude created has chartered, in this late day 
and at a time when the very foundations of justice and humanity 
are being shaken, a body destined to unite still more closely the two 
great nations of France and America; and to increase, if it were 
possible to do so, the enthusiasm with which America has entered 
into the vast struggle. Mr Hawkes and his associates built better 
than they knew when they founded the French Institute, for they 
did not anticipate that it should be a power and a rendezvous in 
these days of turmoil and stress for the lovers of the glorious France 
that has saved the soul of the world. 



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